It's easy to think that Neanderthals were dumb brutes,
incapable of complex speech like us. But it turns out that a Neanderthal's hyoid — a small bone in the neck that supports the tongue
and is crucial for speech — worked in a very similar way to your own hyoid.
Does this mean they could talk like (and with!) humans?

Other neanderthals would probably also like to hear that — but one researcher thinks that the…
Read more Read more

For a long time, scientists believed that modern humans were
the only primates that had the capacity for complex speech. Reason being: Our unique horseshoe-shaped hyoid bone, which is the anatomical foundation of speech and
something no other animal has. Indeed, other non-human primates have their own
version of the hyoid, but only our bone is in the right position to work with
the larynx and tongue that allows for true language.

But this human-centric belief all changed almost 25 years ago. In 1989, scientists
discovered a Neanderthal hyoid bone that looked remarkably like our own. What's
more, complex speech is often thought to be necessary for the development of
culture, because it allows individuals to share ideas — 50,000 to 100,000
years ago, around the time that complex language was thought to have evolved in
humans, Neanderthals were burying their dead, which is suggestive of religion
or thoughts about the afterlife.

Over a century ago, archaeologists discovered what appeared to be a Neanderthal burial at La…
Read more Read more

The evidence suggested that Neanderthals could talk, but
nobody really knew if their hyoids actually worked like our own. So scientists
decided to find out. BBC explains:

An international team of researchers analysed a fossil
Neanderthal throat bone using 3D x-ray imaging and mechanical modelling.

This model allowed the group to see how the hyoid behaved in
relation to the other surrounding bones.

Stephen Wroe, from the University of New England, Armidale,
NSW, Australia, said: "We would argue that this is a very significant step
forward. It shows that the Kebara 2 hyoid doesn't just look like those of
modern humans - it was used in a very similar way."

Of course, showing that Neanderthal's hyoid worked like ours
does isn't definitive proof that they could speak like humans, but it is highly
suggestive of it, the researchers note.

However, other scientists certainly think complex language
in Neanderthals isn't so far fetched. In a review
article published earlier this year, two researchers from the Max Planck
Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands argued that modern language and speech actually
go back to the most recent ancestor we shared with Neanderthals and Denisovians
(another humanoid species that co-existed with Neanderthals and early humans). This
would mean that complex language didn't develop 100,000 years ago, but half a million years
ago.